


Tag-along

by MellonLord



Category: The Mortal Path (Podcast)
Genre: Everybody loves Findex, Group Hugs, blatant hypothesizing about Exten's city attracting tendencies, blatant hypothesizing about that one wizard of the royal court, can we keep him?, this is basically just wish-fulfillment, windex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-07-17
Packaged: 2019-06-11 17:22:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15320445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MellonLord/pseuds/MellonLord
Summary: "Welcome to space, Windex."[In which the gang leaves, and Findex comes with.]





	Tag-along

They were crossing the wastes when it happened.  
  
Well, more accurately, three things kind of happened at once.  
  
They had been trying to get back to the Fallen City in a stealthy fashion so that the four of them could hide from the royal Wizard and his guard until the heat passed or they found some magic item that allowed them to compete with the Wizard's power, but in the barren homestretch they had opted for speed over anything else. Natalia was carrying the vertically-challenged Nerium, running alongside Taro and only keeping up with Findex because the giant lizard man kept pausing to wait for them.  
  
Then, when they were about two-thirds of the way across, the air pressure abruptly changed with a "pop" and the wind died.  
  
The group stopped immediately, clustering together to scan the horizons. As it turned out, now that the dust was settling down, there was a lot to see.  
  
There was a pillar of green light, to start with. It was to the south, the direction they had just fled, and as it flickered Nerium asked, "So d'you think the Wizard's noticed what we did?"  
  
Then the pillar disappeared, only to be quickly replaced by an identical light slightly to the west, then another to the southeast, and Natalia felt an unwelcome premonition that they were getting closer.  
  
"Let's keep going. Right now."  
  
Then a second omen appeared in the sky. It was like lightning, but in the wrong direction, and much too wide. A shape like a great silver tree stretched up from the dusty earth to the clouds, if only for the briefest of moments; it still made Nat's hair stand on end as she pushed off at a wary jog in the direction of the City.  
  
Findex, stress evident in his voice, was saying, "The Wizard can make lightning now? We're not faster than lightning! When did he have time to learn how to do that?"  
  
And _that _was when things went wrong.__  
  
The inverted lightning flashed again in the exact same spot, and Nat's ears popped, and a perfect circle of darkness appeared at the apex of the lightning's reach, and the world exploded into pain.  
  
Taro shrieked from Nat's right. She felt the same. Every inch of her skin was ablaze, and she could guess from experience that it would get worse before it got better. She gritted her teeth and forced herself to hold it together, but the world swam around her.  
  
Nerium groaning, "Why now?"  
  
Herself saying, "Not again."  
  
Taro gasping, "We can't go now! Findex!"  
  
_Fuck, that was a good point._  
  
The lizard in question had his sword drawn and pointed vaguely at the green lights still blinking around to the South, eyes jumping between said lights and the ominous sky circle and the three of them with an expression caught between confusion, determination, and unbridled panic.  
  
He wouldn't last ten minutes if the rest of them just up and vanished.  
  
Nerium was struggling out of her arms suddenly, saying, "We only brought what we were carrying! Nat, get him!"  
  
_What did that-?_  
  
_Oh._  
  
Nat dropped Nerium.  
  
It was hard to get to Findex, but she shouted his name and he closed the gap between them, stuttering, "I-I don't know what's going on! What's wrong with you? What's-" and she wasn't listening when she wrapped her arms around him - he squawked - and put every ounce of energy in her body into lifting the lizard man off his feet.  
  
Her knees buckled from the weight and the pain. As she tipped backward, she saw that the sky was falling. A perfect model of a city was coming into view, first the tall towers of some sort of castle or keep to one side, then the twisting spires of a large building towards the middle, then houses and factories and stores and the wall around the edges, all emerging from that circle in the sky like an airship dipping below the clouds. It just kept coming.  
  
Then the pebbles and dirt started to rain down around them and both Nerium and Findex started to scream and Nat's vision whited out just as she registered that the lizard's cries of pain had a different pitch entirely than his more typical cries of panic. 

  
******  


When her senses untangled themselves again, Natalia was pressed hard into a loosely-packed cobble road. At first she thought that the pain hadn't left this time, and she was still suffering the after-effects of that sourceless searing heat.  
  
Then she realized she was just being slowly crushed to death by a six foot lizard man lying on top of her.  
  
She tried to wriggle out from under him, but she was feeling weak and cold and he was entirely uncooperative. It was a relief that she wasn't too nauseous - she couldn't even roll over like this, and choking on her own vomit would be quite an anticlimactic way to die after everything she'd been through. Findex was making it a bit difficult to breathe, but not enough to be a serious problem. She felt oddly inclined to forgive him this small affront. Still, she'd really prefer it if he would just move a little bit.  
  
_Actually, why wasn't he moving?_  
  
_Gods, was he even breathing?_  
  
Nat was just starting to panic when Findex finally started to come to. His tail twitched (which she _felt_ , ew), then he groaned and raised a clawed hand to his face, then he gasped and tried to sit up suddenly which was profoundly uncomfortable and awkward for the both of them. He ended up rolling gracelessly off to the side, and when he registered her there his expression grew apologetic and he opened his mouth to say something. And gagged. And turned to crawl a few feet away to throw up in the dirt.  
  
Nat let out a long breath and let herself close her eyes for just a moment before taking in her surroundings. Before she could even get to that, though, there was a small hand on her shoulder.  
  
"I can't believe- I mean, I knew it would work!" Nerium said. She was looking uncharacteristically pale, doubtless an effect of the less than comfortable transportation, but seemed positively ecstatic nonetheless. "Although... Did you really need to suplex him?"  
  
"Who's suplexing what?" came a groggy-sounding voice from off to the side. Nat turned to see Taro stumbling over, wincing slightly, eyes darting about.  
  
"Nat's suplexed Windex, though honestly her form was a bit sloppier than I've come to expect from her," Nerium supplied, while Nat groaned eloquently.  
  
"She's- shit, Findex! Where is he? Did we- is he here?" Now that Taro was shaking off his daze, his eyes were growing wide, an edge of panic emerging in his voice.  
  
Nat and Nerium just quietly pointed to the other side where Findex was finishing wiping his mouth. At the attention, he raised a single hand in an awkward little wave.  
  
Taro was hugging him in an instant, nearly overbalancing the lizard with a deceptively nonchalant, "Knew you'd want to stick around."  
  
Nerium helped Nat to her feet as well as she could, then darted over to join the hug. After a moment of hesitation, Nat went to put her arms around her friends as well.  
  
The embrace lasted easily long enough to enter awkward territory. When they finally broke apart with a series of coughs and pats, Nerium started to inventory the items they still had with them and Findex stood, stretched, and looked up at the sky.  
  
"... Guys? Where are we?"  
  
Nat finally looked up as well, and found a clear sky containing two small suns, three moons and two twinkling planets visible from their vantage point.  
  
She grinned. "Welcome to space, Windex."


End file.
